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Thursday, April 24, 2008

As a part of the LEST team, we work together to promote the team & eachother's Etsy stores & one way that we can do this is to snag a TREASURY on Etsy.

Up till now, I had heard about & had seen treasuries, but I had no idea about how to put one together & what it takes to SNAG one. It's obvious, Treasuries put 12 artists out of a gazillion into the spotlight & brings people to their store. It's not about promoting yourself, either... it's about promoting 12 OTHER artists. I've been lucky enough to be in a few treasuries, mostly thanks to my sweet friend Mallory (Rosebud101).

So...doing my part for the LEST team, yesterday I set out to figure out treasuries. :o) Happily, I found a link to the Etsy Treasury Demo (written by sweetestpea...thank you!), which had tons of info on how the whole thing works. A really cool tool she talks about is the Poster Sketch Tool, which lets you set up your selections ahead of time. Very slick.

Anyway... from what I've heard, it's pretty tough to snag a treasury (there has to be less than 333 treasuries for new ones to be able to be posted)... but I set mine up w/ the poster sketch tool... figured out at what point I needed to be sitting @ my computer ready to pounce... refresh, refresh, refresh (F5, F5, F5) ......347 treasuries, 340, 338, 334..... 385, 398, 430..... what???? LOL. Obviously there are a few others waiting to post their treasuries as well. But somehow I ended up w/ one, too!! LOL! I'm so excited!! :o)

Here you go... this is my FIRST treasury. It expires on Saturday, April 26th @ 8:56pm central time.

Click on each image to check out the item & then check out each artist's shop... there's some amazing items out there! Then tell me what you think by leaving me a comment on my treasury page!

As a team of Lampwork Artists, we plan to work together to increase our visibility and to share knowledge about different marketing ideas that relate to selling on Etsy. We'll have group sales (that I'll announce here in my blog as well as in my Etsy store announcement, etc...) & promotions... we'll be opening an Etsy LEST group store SOON where we'll sell beads & such for fundraisers to various causes like Beads of Courage .....& we even have a LEST group BLOG! (Now I just have to come up w/ something clever & glass related to talk about!)

Sunday, April 20, 2008

I have a lady in my local ISGB chapter, Julia Lund, who has talked up this cool weekend in Oregon called Glass Stock, hosted by Mike & Deb Crowley, owners of The Glass Hive in South Beach, Oregon. Mike is also the builder of my new Glass Hive Annealer!

Julia went to the very first Glass Stock & has participated/taught there every year since (I think!).

Anyway... this will be year #6 of Glass Stock & it's gotten so popular that they now have to do a lottery drawing. I have been wanting to go to this since Julia talked about it last summer, but figured I would probably wait another year before REALLY considering going... but my friend Deb mentioned that she had put her name in the hat, figuring that she'd go for getting picked first & then figure out if there was a possibility of her being able to afford to go later... she could always give up her spot. :o) I thought "what the heck"... why not? So I signed up for the lottery & holy crap, I got selected!!! LOL!! I had decided even before I was picked that I had to figure out how to go.... I REALLY need more time w/ people who know what they're doing, LOL! I'm absolutely thrilled that I'm going to get the chance now!!

Why freaking out?? Because... I'm the new kid still. Makes me nervous to be amongst a big group of talent like this... of course I know I won't be the only new kid & I know I have my own bit of talent to prop myself up w/, (right?), but it still makes me nervous. :o) Luckily there are a few people I know & others I've met, so it's not like I'm on my own.

Even more nerve-racking is the fact that EVERYONE has to do a demo of some kind the first day!!! Yikes! What in the heck can I bring to the table??? Holy crap. Oh well... I've got lots of time to think about it.

We've decided to turn it into a family road trip... will probably spend a few weeks getting there... running around Washington & Oregon... & then Brad & the boys will camp down the street @ the state park while I will room w/ other lampworkers & have a fabulous time w/out my family!!! :o) I certainly didn't want to have to leave the party each night & climb into a tent!! LOL. I really had to twist Brad's arm to take this trip w/ me, NOT... the GREAT NORTHWEST... home to a gazillion micro breweries & brewpubs!! LOL! Right around the corner from Glass Stock is the Rogue Ale Brewery... we spent 4 extra days in Seattle just so we could drive down to visit Rogue a few years ago!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Monday after Easter I spent the afternoon w/ Bernadette Fuentes!! I was so excited to get to know her a little bit better than our first meeting, LOL...I think I made a little bit better impression this time. (not too many tears!) :o) We spent hours talking, went to lunch at a wonderful little neighborhood coffee shop, Taza De Cafe, that has FABULOUS sandwiches (the MATEO on ciabatta bread, TO DIE FOR!)... & I even showed her some technical computer stuff, LOL! Then she took me out to her studio & we torched for a few hours. What an honor!! She showed me how she makes her hand pendants & showed me how to use enamels & how to blow shards! I was so grateful for the time that she gave me, it really was a wonderful visit! I met her husband, Paul, too... what a nice guy.

The cool thing...turns out the next day was a meeting up @ GlassCraft, Inc w/ their local lampworking group called the "Bead Cluster" & this was going to be Bernadette's first time going since she moved to Colorado...& she's a little bit shy... so she asked me if I wanted to come along! Of course I did!! :o) I was up in her area that day, anyway, @ my sister Jeri's silversmithing class, so I just headed back over to her place afterwards where we hung out some more, chatting & looking @ eachother's beads. I was thrilled to get some feedback from her about mine... she thinks I'm on the right track. ;o) Her 50th birthday was the following week, so I surprised her w/ one of my lampwork kaleidoscopes! She loved it!

The meeting was a simple pot luck & everyone just hung out chatting, so I got to meet all sorts of Denver area lampworkers, a few I had seen online (Leslie Anne Bitgood - Crazy Woman Glass... super sweet, very friendly lady!). There were a few more that I wish had been there (you know who you are!) I would've loved to have met. :o( Next time. I really appreciated Bernadette bringing me along & I she appreciated having me there for backup. :o)

Anyway... what a sweet sweet lady, Bernadette. I am so glad that I contacted her & so grateful for the time that she spent w/ me. She's been around the lampworking world forever :o) ...so it was a true honor.

Next time I'm out there I'll contact a few others... I was a little bit shy, some were a little bit busy, LOL, & my 2nd week out there was a little bit too crazy. :o)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

I went to Colorado for Spring Break @ Easter w/ my boys & hubby to visit my family & ended up staying an extra 10 days! LOL. 22 days total. The night before we're getting ready to leave, my sisters are whining, LOL, "why do you have to go?" (can't tell you how many times I heard "move back home" on this trip! My God...I've only been gone from home 18 years... you think they'd have figured it out by now. LOL! Kidding. Sorta.)... so I think about what might be on my calendar for a second... doctor & dentist appointments I'd need to move around... an art sale 3 weeks away... not a whole lot else going on... so I said... "I suppose the guys can drive home tomorrow & leave me behind & I can fly home in a week or so".... & my DH says "I don't see why that can't happen!" So that's what happened!! :o) My oldest sister's husband wasn't thrilled, LOL... saying "No, I really think it's time for you to go, Julie... Jeri hasn't gotten anything done around here w/ you around"... playful, but just being honest, LOL, poor guy. Not like I was staying forever... just another 10 days. Everyone would survive 10 more days w/out the women focused on them 24/7, wouldn't they?? & they survived... for the most part. :o)

Anyway... I had a wonderful time w/ my sisters. My parents actually left for the mountains for a week just before my family was heading home, LOL, so I actually had their house to myself the first 5 extra days!! My sisters thought I should stay w/ one of them... I actually enjoyed heading back to a quiet house after a crazy day w/ nieces & nephews....... & sisters. :o) We even had everyone over to party the first night that Mom & Dad were gone, LOL, just like the old times!! (NOT! [old times]… I was a good girl…. WAS.) Mom had little clues when she got back… the “party” napkins were out… guess one of my sisters restocked w/ them instead of w/ the “normal” ones….. & then Mom came across a big opened can of pineapple juice in the fridge & asked me if I thought it should go in a different container & I was completely clueless…. She knew it wasn’t hers & I wasn’t claiming it… then I realized what it was & told her that Jeri & Jill had been making drinks. LOL. Busted!!! :o) Funny… we’re [almost] all in our 40s… AND the little kiddos were there, so it wasn’t like we were having a kegger or something, LOL, but we still didn’t come clean. Surprise Mom!! :o) It was just a good place to get together w/out the husbands having to be there. LOL.

Okay… I’ll write about what I did the FIRST week of Spring Break later… it was AWESOME!!!